Question

A ferris wheel on a California pier is 27 m high and rotates once every 32 seconds in the counterclockwise direction. When the wheel starts turning, you are at the very top. What is your vertical position after 16 seconds?

Answer 1

Halfway through the Ferris wheel's rotation (after 16 seconds), the rider would be at the lowest point, which is 27 meters below the starting top position.

Step-by-step explanation:

The student's question regarding the vertical position on a Ferris wheel after 16 seconds relates to circular motion in physics. Given that the Ferris wheel is 27 m high and completes one rotation every 32 seconds, we can deduce that halfway through a rotation (after 16 seconds), the rider will be at the lowest point of the wheel.

This is because the wheel rotates in a counterclockwise direction, and starting from the top, 16 seconds corresponds to half of a full revolution (180 degrees). The vertical position will therefore be directly at the bottom of the wheel's vertical diameter, which is 27 meters below the starting position at the top.